Celestial Ranger: Volume 2
by LegendaryRogue
Summary: **Up for adoption, no need to message**
1. Chapter 1

**Holy moly, it's been a long time since I've updated any stories. I apologize for this as I was a bit busy with life. If you did not read Volume One, then I highly recommend doing so before reading this. I felt bad for kind of leaving everything to gather dust, and decided I'd should update at least one story before college starts up again. I will continue to update as much as I can, but it may be a bit slow going until summer, or at least spring break.**

**This volume of Celestial Ranger will include The Burning Bridge, Icebound Land, and Battle for Skandia, and despite the fact the poll result that Lucy should stay with Halt, there were some things that would just ruin the flow of the story if I did that, so I decided to make her leave with Will, Horace, and Gilan.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or Fairy Tail.**

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Lucy was lying awake in her bed after another hard day's training (the dangers of the world wouldn't stop just because they killed a couple Kalkara after all), and was pondering what to do about her fellow apprentice/roommate. To put it simply, Will had been a bit down in the dumps lately; The reason for this being the fact that he panicked when he was charged by a Wargal during a tracking mission. He was ashamed and angry at himself for not only losing his cool, but missing two shots as well.

Still pondering how she could cheer him up, Lucy heard the sound of hurried-but-trying-to-be-quiet shuffling of her roommate from behind the curtain. She frowned in annoyance, wondering what in the blazes he was doing this hour of the night, despite the fact that she herself had not gone to sleep.

Then she heard it, voices coming from the kitchen. One was the muffled familiar tones of Halt's voice, the second was familiar, but Lucy was having difficulty placing it in her current state of exhaustion. On the other side of the curtain, she heard Will stop moving. She got out of bed and cautiously pulled the curtain aside, not wanting to catch Will in a state of undress, but it hadn't been necessary as he was fully dressed, hair tousled from the bed and listening intently at the door.

"What are you-?" Lucy began to ask before Will quickly shushed her, finger to his lips.

"Gilan's here," Will said quietly as by way of answering her question. Lucy spread out her hands with a confused expression as if to say, "Yeah, and?" Will sighed, whispering, "Just . . . play along?" not wanting to admit that he wanted to play off Gilan's arrival as Halt had done.

He opened the door and walked out and Lucy followed, trying to straighten out her own bed-hair and still in her nightgown.

She hid a yawn as Will casually greeted Gilan, "Evening, Gilan. What brings you here?"

"I'm wondering the same thing, actually," Lucy added.

"Isn't anybody surprised when I turn up in the middle of the night?" he asked in mock despair.

"Lucy, Will, it's late and we have a busy tomorrow, you best go back to bed." Halt said.

Lucy wasn't going to complain, but Will looked stricken and his air of casualness dropped instantly. "Oh, please, Halt?" Will pleaded. "I want to know what's going on!"

Gilan and Halt seemed to exchange amused looks as Will hopped from one foot to the other. Lucy, on the other hand, was more than willing to go back to bed. Halt kept a straight face as he set four mugs of piping hot, freshly made coffee on the table. "Just as well I made four cups then, isn't it?"

Realizing that they had been giving them a hard time, Will just shrugged, grinned and went over to the table. Lucy trailed behind him like a zombie, drifting towards the coffee. Within a few moments, everyone was settled down with their coffee.

"So, Gilan, before Will explodes with curiosity, what is the reason for this unexpected visit?" he said.

"Well, it has to do with those battle plans you discovered last week. Now that we know what Morgarath has in mind, the King wants the army ready on the Plains of Uthal before the dark of the next moon. That's when Morgarath plans to break out through Three Step Pass." Gilan explained.

Lucy remembered that event, could she forget considering it was the same event that had kept her from falling asleep tonight. She couldn't forget how scared Will had been, and how he could have died were it not for the combined efforts of Tug, Halt, and herself. He felt awful about missing his assailant twice. She couldn't really blame him.

While the Wargals were nothing compared to what Lucy had to deal with on a nearly daily basis in Fairy Tail, Will had only ever been in a couple life-or-death situations, both of which had nearly ended his life, and the second of which didn't have the enemy charging directly at him. But the document contained information about Morgarath's attack plan, including a force of five hundred Skandian mercenaries making their way through the swamps to attack Araluen forces at Three Step Pass, then the Wargals would flood out onto the Plains.

"So Duncan plans to beat him to the punch," Halt said, nodding. "Good thinking. That way we control the battlefield."

Will copied the movement, causing Lucy to roll her eyes, and attempting to match Halt's tone said, "And we'll keep Morgarath's army bottled up in the Pass."

With a grin, Gilan said, "On the contrary, once the army's in place, Duncan plans to withdraw the garrison, then fall back to prepared positions and let Morgarath out onto the Plains."

This surprised both of the apprentices. "Is the King crazy!? Why would . . . ?" he trailed off remember just _who _he was calling crazy. "I mean . . . No offense or anything like that, but it's just—"

"Oh," Halt began. "I'm sure the King wouldn't be offended to hear that a lowly apprentice Ranger thought he was crazy. Kings usually love to hear that sort of thing."

Lucy decided to chime in. "I'm kind of with Will on this one. Why would the King let Morgarath's forces out of Three Step Pass where the Araluen army can bottleneck them?"

Halt felt a small bit of pride at Lucy's tactical thinking, even if she was failing to see the larger picture. Though he supposed he couldn't fault her for it, she had lived in an entirely different world from them and couldn't really understand just how much fear Morgarath caused throughout the year, even if she had studied the country's history. "Because we've spent sixteen years looking over our shoulders at Morgarath, wondering what he's up to. In that time, we've had many of our forces tied up patrolling the base of the cliffs and keeping watch over Three Step. And he's been free to strike at us any time he likes. The Kalkara were the latest example, as you know only too well."

Gilan piped up, "And there's another reason. After sixteen years of relative peace, people are growing complacent. Not the Rangers, of course, but the village people who provide men-at-arms for our army, and even some of the barons and Battlemasters in remote fiefs to the north."

"You've seen for yourself how reluctant some people are to leave their farms and go to war," Halt added, causing both apprentices to nod as they had spent the last week raising levies of men. Needless to say, some of the villages were . . . shall we say, less than eager to provide the men that would make up the bulk of the army.

"As far as King Duncan is concerned, now is the time to settle this. We're as strong as we'll ever be and any delay will only weaken us. This is the best opportunity we'll have to get rid of Morgarath once and for all." Gilan said.

"All of which still begs my original question," Halt said. "What brings you here in the middle of the night?"

"Orders from Crowley," Gilan answered, placing a dispatch notice in front of Halt.

He unrolled the paper and read it before rolling it back up. "So you're taking dispatches to King Swyddned of the Celts. I assume you're invoking the mutual defense treaty that Duncan signed with him some years ago?"

"The King feels we're going to need all the troops we can muster," Gilan answered with a nod, sipping at his coffee.

"With this plan, I suppose he would want as much manpower as he could get," Lucy said, nodding. She wasn't entirely aware of this treaty that was mentioned, or the reasoning behind it, but there was always time for history lessons later . . . like . . . during the day, after she'd gotten more sleep.

Halt nodded in agreement. "I can't fault his thinking there. But…?" he said as he spread his hands as if to question Gilan's presence.

"Well, it's an official embassy to _Celtica," _as he put emphasis on the last word, realization dawned on Halt.

"Of course," he said. "The old Celtic tradition."

"Superstition, more like it," Gilan answered, shaking his head. "It's a ridiculous waste of time as far as I'm concerned."

"Of course it is," Halt replied. "But the Celts insist on it, so what can you do?"

"It's all very well in normal times, but with all these preparations for war, we're stretched thin in every area. We simply don't have the people to spare. So Crowley thought…"

"I think I'm ahead of you," said Halt.

Will and Lucy were looking back and forth between the two men, then at each other, neither one of them fully understanding the two fully-fledged Rangers. Will looked frustrated and like he was about ready to explode, but Lucy had a bit more . . . tact than her male compatriot when it came to these matters.

"What are you two talking about?" she calmly asked, confused. "Because I think I lost you somewhere in that conversation."

Halt turned to her with a raised brow. "Getting lost in a conversation is no good. It should be obvious that Gilan is asking me to you two to him so you may accompany him to Celtica."

Lucy thought for a moment as she thought on her geography lessons as Gilan nodded in confirmation.

"Us? Why us?" asked Will. "What can we do in Celtica?"

"Celtica is the border country to the north, one of our allies, right?" asked Lucy.

"That is correct, I see you've been paying attention to your geography lessons, better than someone at least . . . . To answer your question, Will, I suppose you'd ask interminable questions, interrupt your betters and forget to do your chores. The real question is, can you be spared from duty here, and the answer to that is 'Definitely.'"

Will and Lucy both wanted to ask what they would actually be doing in Celtica and why Gilan need someone to accompany him, but they both also knew that Halt would only give that answer when he felt like giving it. No sooner, and no later. It was a behavior that had become a constant irritation to Lucy, who took great displeasure in being denied knowledge, especially knowledge she couldn't ask Grandpa Crux, and while it did annoy Will, who had a burning curiosity, had learned to be at least somewhat patient.

Gilan took pity on them both after a few minutes. "I need you two with me to make up numbers since traditionally, the Celts insist that official embassies consist of at least three people. And Halt's right, you two are the only ones who can be spared. Lucy a little less so if people were allowed to know about her magic. If it makes either of you feel better, I only got this mission because I'm the most junior of the Corps."

"But why at least three people?" asked Will. "Can't one person deliver a message just as well as three?"

Gilan sighed before beginning to explain, "As we were saying, it's a superstition among the Celts. It goes back to the old days of the Celtic Council, when the Celts, the Scotti, and the Hibernians were one alliance. They were ruled then by a triumvirate—"

Halt interrupted before the impromptu history lesson to continue. "The point is, that while Gilan _could_ deliver the message himself, they'd keep him waiting and fob him off for days, or even weeks, while they dither over form and protocol. And we don't have that sort of time to waste. There's an old Celtic saying that covers it: One man may be deceit. Two can be conspiracy. Three is the number I trust."

"So you're sending us because you can do without us?" Will asked, somewhat offended.

Lucy couldn't help but roll her eyes a bit, "Give him a chance to explain."

"Well, we can, as a matter of fact. But you can't send just anyone on these embassies. The three members have to have some sort of official status or position in the world. They can't be simple men-at-arms, for example. Both you and Lucy are members of the Ranger Corps, that will carry a certain amount of weight with the Celts.

"I suspect we may need to find a fourth member for the embassy, due to Lucy being of the . . . fairer sex. They might not believe her to be of an official status or position. Whether they do or don't, four would do just as well as three."

"Aren't we still just apprentices?" asked Lucy.

"Bronze or silver, it doesn't matter. If you wear the oakleaf, you're one of us." Halt stated.

Will smiled at Lucy before looking back at Halt with the same smile. "Well, when you put it like that, I'd be glad to join you, Gilan."

"I suppose it'd be pretty neat to see some other countries of this world, even if . . . you know . . . it's because of a war . . ." said Lucy, accepting the invitation.

Halt regarded the two dryly (don't want to get too supportive now, do we?) before turning back to Gilan. "So, Gilan, can you think of anyone else who's totally unnecessary to be the fourth member?" he asked, causing Will's smile to fade.

"That's the other reason why Crowley sent me here. Since Redmont is one of the larger fiefs, he thought you might be able to spare someone else from here. Any suggestions?" asked Gilan.

Halt began to rub his chin as he pondered the final member of the embassy and an idea began to take root. "I think we might have just the person you need. Lucy, Will, you'd better get some sleep. I'll give Gilan a hand with the horses and then we'll go up to the castle."

Lucy had yet to fall asleep that night and Will had not gotten enough, so they both headed to bed after bidding Halt and Gilan goodnight, eager to rest up for the next day and their coming journey to Celtica.

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**Hope you enjoyed and please leave a review. :)**

**On a side note: It feels absolutely amazing to get back to writing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Fairy Tail or Ranger's Apprentice**

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Lucy was excited, despite the misting rain currently soaking her three companions and herself. She had never traveled to another country before, worlds yes, but not countries. Now that she thought about it, it was rather strange that she had never left Fiore, but had been to not one, but two other worlds. The thought caused her to chuckle dryly to herself.

"If you have a joke, I think we'd like to hear it," said Gilan. "I think the boys need a little up."

She looked over to her companions who were both hunched over their horses, trying to keep warm despite the cold misting rain that was soaking them through to the bones. They looked up and towards her at Gilan's statement and Lucy shrugged a little sheepishly.

"It's nothing funny, really. I was just thinking about how cool it's going to be to see another country. I've never actually traveled outside of Fiore."

"Fiore? Is that where you're from?" asked Will, suddenly very interested in the conversation.

"Yes. That's the name of the country I'm from anyway," Lucy confirmed.

It was Horace's turn to chime in. "Wait . . . This is Araluen. If you're from Fiore, then how come you said you've never traveled to another country?"

Everyone was silent for a few moments, forgetting that Horace didn't know that Lucy was a mage from another world. They exchanged a few awkward glances, wondering how to approach this situation.

"It's . . . . a little difficult to explain," said Lucy. "For now . . . just think of it as a nickname for Araluen."

Horace just looked more confused and was about to start asking more questions when Gilan jumped in to save her. "So Horace, are we giving you enough adventure?" There might be a time for Horace to find out that he was basically traveling with a magic user that was literally from another world, but that time was not now.

Wiping the gathering mist off of his face, Horace responded with, "A bit less than I expected, sir. But it still beats a close order drill."

"I imagine it does," said Gilan with a kind smile. "You know, you don't have to have to ride in the back. We Rangers don't stand too much on ceremony. Come join us." Saying that, he nudged Blaze's side, causing the horse to sidestep to make room for the knight-in-training to join them.

"Thank you, sir." Horace said gratefully as he and Kicker joined the line of Rangers. Well, one Ranger and two Rangers-in-training.

Gilan gave Will a cocked eyebrow in response to the honorific. "Polite, isn't he? Obviously manners are well taught in the Battleschool these days. Nice to be called 'sir' all the time." The jibe caused both Lucy and Will to smile. Not a bad idea to have a bit of respect shown. Perhaps you could call me 'sir' as well," Gilan continued as he turned to face the tree line.

It was only Lucy who caught the barest hint of a grin as he turned away, while Will's smile faded. "Sir? You really want me to call you 'sir,' Gilan?" Gilan frowned a bit at that, causing to Will to quickly correct himself with, "I mean, sir! You want me to call you 'sir' . . . sir?"

Lucy was having difficulty stifling her laughter as she turned away, covering her mouth. Honestly, Will was far too charmingly gullible at times. Even so . . . her mirth quickly faded as Gilan's playful banter made her long for the rowdiness of the Fairy Tail. Even now, she could envision it perfectly in her head. Some minuscule slight would set Natsu and Gray against each other in a shouting match, then the fight would quickly turn physical, turning into an all-out brawl as other members were hit by them or something they had thrown. Some unfortunate individual would be thrown into Erza, causing her beloved strawberry cake to fall add meet its fate on the floor where it would likely be desecrated as someone stepped on it. The brawl would likely be put to an end shortly after as Erza beat them all to a pulp, and there Lucy would be with Wendy, Carla, and Mirajane, casually keeping conversation as they dodged all manner of thrown things, including bodies.

Thinking of this exact scenario that had occurred more times than she could count (considering it was a very near-daily occurrence within the guild so long as Natsu and Gray were present) made her chest ache and she found herself longing for the days when she'd come home to find Erza, Gray, Happy, and Natsu had made themselves at home, making a mess of her place and eating her out of house and home. Now she had to hide her face for an entirely different reason.

Keeping the act up, Gilan shook his head. "No. I don't think 'Sir-Sir' is suitable. Nor 'Sir Gilan'. I think just one 'sir' would do nicely, don't you?" The perplexed Will was having difficulty responding as Gilan continued, "After all, it'll do nicely to keep us all remembering who's in charge of this party, won't it?"

"Well, I suppose it-" Will started to say, still perplexed when Lucy interrupted.

"Don't you think you've teased him enough, Gilan?" she asked, her tone harsher than she had intended as the words she had been holding back during Gilan's last statement burst forth.

The three men turned to her, a little surprised at her angered tone, though Will was mostly embarrassed at not having caught on to the teasing. Even through his embarrassment, he was not blind to the hunched, despondent figure of his fellow apprentice. It was body language he recognized from the many times when she'd had a moment to herself between studying and training, when she was thinking about her friends that had been left behind when she came here.

"Lucy . . . are you okay?" asked Will.

"I'm fine," she said quietly, even though they both knew she wasn't. "I just . . . This rain is awful. Let's just keep going."

They exchanged worried glances with each other before continuing on in silence. The rain had stopped sometime in the mid-afternoon and traveled the rest of the day on sodden ground until they finally made camp at the first set of rolling hills. They all did their part to set up camp, but when Gilan began teaching Horace swordplay, Lucy took the chance to slip away, not without notifying Will and Gilan, to have some time alone to think and to train her magic, hopefully where Horace wouldn't see her. He seemed like a nice guy, but Lucy was trying to keep the whole magic thing on the down-low, as Halt had told her to do. Also she didn't fancy letting everyone in this world know and having them burn her for being a witch.

Focusing on her surroundings through her meditative training, she blocked out the distant sounds from metal on metal, and later, wood on wood as the boys trained. She trained till she had nearly exhausted her magic reserves before shuffling back to camp just as the others were getting ready to settle for the night.

"Glad you decided to join us again, Lucy," said Gilan with a raised brow as he took in her weary appearance. "Since you skipped out on all the fun, how about you take first watch?" he joked.

Lucy, on the other hand, was in no mood for jokes and fixed Gilan with a glare that would have sent the Kalkara running. " . . . No." she stated as she made for her bedroll. It felt gross doing so, between the rain and the sweat, but with no options for bathing or even to really wipe down, she had little choice but to suffer with it.

"Well then, in the interest of keeping my hide, Will, take the first watch. Horace, you take second, Lucy takes third, and I'll take the last watch."

Thanks to there being more people, their watches were made shorter, the group still continued their journey before the sun was able to crest over the horizon. There was less and less vibrancy and diverse plantlife around as the terrain became rocky hills, the earth becoming coarse, causing trees to become fewer and farther between and stunted in their growth, unable to derive the nutrients they needed from this soil as the forest shifted into craggy hills of hardy, rough grass that swayed in the seemingly incessant wind. What few houses they saw were made of stone and thatch.

When they stopped the next night, Gilan once again began training the two boys, and Lucy once again wandered off to train alone. Well, not completely alone as she had Capricorn summoned. This pattern continued for a couple more nights before Gilan eventually stopped her as she got up to do her training.

"No, you're staying by the camp tonight," said Gilan. Much as he knew she was likely doing training of her own, this was a skill she needed to learn as well. Besides . . . he found himself morbidly curious about just how well she could use that whip that she always had attached to her belt. "Let's see what you can do with that whip of yours."

"Huh? Why?" asked Lucy.

"Because I'm curious," he said as he stood. "Just how precise are you with that?"

Lucy shrugged a bit. "I don't know, I'm pretty good at using it to grab things . . . " she stated lamely.

Gilan grinned at that. Now they were getting somewhere. Drawing one of the knives at his belt and held it out in what could be considered a threatening manner if they didn't know that this was a test. "Alright then, try to take the knife out of my hand," he challenged her.

Lucy looked confused and a little nervous, "Are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked she was taking the spade-tipped leather whip.

"You said you were good at grabbing things with that whip. Were you bluffing?"

"No!" Lucy quickly defended, bristling.

"Well then, prove it."Gilan challenged her. He'd knew he'd gotten the reaction he needed when he saw the hard set in her eyes as she decided to do just that.

Before Gilan could really process what was happening, there was a blur of black from the whip and the next thing he knew, the dagger was torn from his hands and into the air, plummeting down to where Lucy caught it. Such a thing was very impressive in this world, but in her own, it would have been something anyone with a certain amount of grace and deftness was able to do, or at least that was how it was at her guild, and certainly nothing compared to what Erza or Bisca could do. She approached him and held out the knife to him, hilt first.

"That was very good. You can do this consistently?" asked Gilan. With a sure nod from Lucy, Gilan sheathed his knife and drew his sword. "Good, now put that away and take out your knives."

"Why?"

Gilan shook his head. "So many questions, but if you must know, I'm going to teach you the double-knife defense. Will has already been practicing with Horace while you've been out . . . doing whatever you've been doing, so I think it's time you learn as well . . . I'm assuming that you don't know it either since Halt would have taught both of you if he was going to teach one of you."

"Double-knife defense? What's that?" asked Lucy as she complied with his earlier request and drew the two knives at her hip.

On a side note, Gilan was still infinitely curious about that cylindrical object she always had on her belt, the one that was adorned with a star attached by a string. But that was for another time. "Well, at least you didn't pretend to know what it was," he said, throwing a pointed look at Will. "The double-knife defense is a technique where you use both your knives, hence double-knife defense, to defend yourself from a melee attacker. It works best when against a sword."

"I suppose it's smart to be able to defend against a swordsman if they get too close . . . " said Lucy in a not all-together certain tone.

Gilan threw another pointed look at Will. "See, she gets it. And yes, it_ is_ very smart."

The next few minutes were spent with him teaching Lucy how to use the double-knife defense, blocking the different types of blows and getting the stance and the hold on the knives down. After a bit, Gilan had Lucy switch to sticks and take turns practicing with Will and Horace. She'd had a little difficulty at first, but she had good reflexes and a good head on her shoulders, so once she started getting the proverbial swing of it, it came to her with increasing ease. Eventually though, everyone settled down for the night to get their rest between watches.

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**Hope you enjoyed! :)**


	3. Update: RETIRING

I'm going to quit writing fanfiction altogether. I am at a point in my life where I simply no longer have the time for it, and what time I do have to devote to writing, I would rather spend working on original novels. I apologize in advance for any disappointment that this may cause, but anyone who wishes to adopt my stories are free to do so without messaging me.

However, I'd also like to thank everyone who showed so much support and enjoyed my fanfictions over the years. All the positive comments really warmed my heart and helped me gain the confidence I needed to begin working on original stories. I am sad to leave like this with so many unfinished works, but it is truly something I no longer have the time for.


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